![]() ![]() “What’s the type of enemy that would be relatively harmless, that you couldn’t run into, and it wouldn’t take health away from you, but then it escalates if you ignore it?” Whitehead said. In each stage, these penguins can break into the action, herding Penny through levels, and ensuring players are kept in high-stress, high-pressure situations. ![]() ![]() Then, the game’s penguins – which serve as a time limiter for players – were created. Then came the idea for a more humorous story, filled with quirky characters like Penny, and the over-the-top Eddie the Emperor. The game’s yo-yo functioning as a weapon and vehicle was decided quickly, in the earliest stages of the game. Screenshot: GamesHubįrom conceptual building blocks, Whitehead and Evening Star fleshed out the ideas for Penny’s Big Breakaway. As a result of Evening Star being comprised of retro game enthusiasts, the flavour of this era shines through – but with a unique approach to art and game design, it also feels like a wholly different experience. Initially, the team aimed to create a modern 3D platformer, and the ideas for Penny’s Big Breakway flew from there. “With Penny’s Big Breakaway, we have a single move set that you’re basically granted immediately – but then it takes you time to master, and actually work out how you can best use it to navigate through the game … I’d say there’s a bit of Dreamcast / GameCube DNA, but we’re not explicitly chasing nostalgia, it just naturally comes through … It was really interesting reading a lot of people being like, ‘oh this is a long lost Sega Saturn game.'” “ somewhat strange and chaotic with the games, because every single player game had a different control scheme, and there was just a lot of creativity.” “What was really interesting for me is I remember the period of time going from Super Nintendo to Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, and that generation shift between 2D and 3D – and just how exciting that was at the time,” Whitehead said. ![]() The game, which was in development across multiple time zones in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, was created as a reflection of the development team’s past with classic platformers, and with appreciation for that era in gaming. Penny’s Big Breakaway, Whitehead’s new game with Evening Star and Private Division, released in February 2024, has already achieved strong reviews on Steam, and high praise for its unique approach to platformer gameplay. With time and attention, those who start with fan games and smaller experiments can graduate to greater heights. If you’re just doing it at home, it’s probably fine.”Īnd as Whitehead’s journey attests, skills learned from working on fan projects can lead to greater opportunities. Don’t think too much about if you’re young and just starting out, because you’re probably not going to do something that will anger one of the major companies, unless you’re trying to make money from it. “I think if you’re going to do a fan game, you should do it from the perspective of, ‘how can I learn and then grow my original skills’ in whatever gaming field you’re interested in.” Image: Evening Star “Every company is different,” Whitehead said. Initially, he considered this work a hobby. Whitehead started off with books on the C++ programming language and DirectX, and wielded knowledge from this research to create his first formal project: a retro Sonic game released on the internet. I didn’t really do mod stuff, I was more interested in learning how to program.” Still from Sonic Mania, directed by Christian Whitehead. There was a lot of people researching how those games worked – how you could make mods to make new level maps. “So I was like, “oh, I’ll learn how to do it myself.” There was a whole community around it, so I got into that scene. I wanted to play more Sonic!” Whitehead said. “I was really keen to make another 2D Sonic game, because by that stage Sega wasn’t making consoles anymore. As Whitehead’s interest in creating games developed, he moved onto more complex projects, using the Sonic series as a jumping off point. One of the games created by Whitehead was called Space Cows, and it allowed players to fly around in space, with cows trying to attack the player. ![]()
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